Title:

Worms, lettuce, and reproduction, Oh My!

Problem Scenario:

I would like two know about worms, lettuce and reproduction because I have always had an interest for worms. Also because, if someone has a garden and they are putting lettuce and worms in the soil. If they are mixing the lettuce in with the worms. Is it making the worms die or live longer to help the soil.

Broad Question:

Does food effect a worms reproduction?

Specific Question:

Does lettuce effect a worms reproduction if that is all it has to eat?

Hypothesis:

My hypothesis was that, the red worms will reproduce better including the lettuce, but not as well without lettuce.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

Lettuce

Dependent Variable:

worms

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

soil

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Reproduce: To make more or expand of an item.

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General Plan

Potential Problems And Solutions

My worms escaped the original case, but then I divided the worms that I had left into four different containers.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

Number of trials:

five

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

I started between ten and twenty-five

When data will be collected

Data will be collected each day for one week at approximately 12:30

Number of Observations:

Seven

Where will data be collected?:

Science journal

Resources and Budget Table

Carolina Red Worms

$14.95

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Background Research

Normally Carolina red worms take a while to reproduce. For or a regular red worm it takes eight to ten weeks. The red worm actually carries both male and female reproductive organs. Once a worm has a red band, called the clitellum, around its body, it normally means it is now ready to breed. In order for the worms to reproduce they have to lay together and form clitella around there bodies. Then the red worm will form a cocoon, about the size of a grape seed. When the cocoon is ready to hatch the outer shell will slowly start to turn a dark red color.

Referencest worms

Information on Red Wiggler Worms | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/about_6617049_information-red-wiggler-worms.html#ixzz1rp

Detailed Procedure

1. I ordered Carolina red worms from my science teachers catalog.
2. I separated ten worms into four separate bins.
3. I added lettuce into two of the bins.
4. I recorded how many worms were in each of the bins for one week.

Diagram

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Graphs

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Data Analysis

What my graph shows here is that over the course of the week the red worms reproduced more efficiently without the lettuce included in the soil, and a had a harder time reproducing with the lettuce in there system.

Conclusion

In conclusion the Carolina Red Worms reproduce more efficiently without the lettuce.

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Discussion

Benefit to Community and/or Science

This is a benefit to the community because, if someone is using lettuce and worms in there garden for better soil, so bye me doing this experiment it would let the person know if they should be putting lettuce and red worms in the soil, or just lettuce, or even just the red worms.

Abstract:

My experiment was to find out if food effects a worms reproduction. But then I took it to another whole level and wrote, does lettuce effect a worms reproduction if that is all it has to eat? For this experiment I said that I thought the red worms will reproduce better including the lettuce, but not as well without lettuce. It was not a hard experiment, but it did have its upps and downs. Such as, some of the worms escaping and having to order new ones. But that was not a problem. The only other thing that was a problem was that one day I counted my worms and there were not as many worms as the day before. That was deffanitley a puzzler but I pulled through and got my work done.